The Press., 1887-12-08
4 SUDDEN DIsaPPEaRANcE.

GQ0M. 1u0y QO nOG go OH 100 6aS1lYy put a smart tap right here will explode them. ]"
 His finger was on the nose of a three inch percussion shell as he spoke. It was a very neatly finished affair, of new pat tern, from which important results were expected by artillerists. The shells were to explode on striking, and shatter avery thing ill front of them, in thoroughly scientific manner. ,..s, ..- l "All right, sir," said Randall; "well get them out on the levee as fast as we can, and the ammunition wagons come for them" -. :, s-s4--.. .... l...ss~- ..E .ps5
 "I'll not send any until you report a sufficient number of shells ready for trans portation." s,aa...-. a..-..s. .... 5...ktz..az
 t'All right, sir,'' said Randall, as he touched his hat and marched out of the colonel's quarters but he added to himE self: s.so7 q
 ''They re little the worst looking death machines ever saw. >Lshall be glad when the last of them IS on the levee." -..
 He waA mate of one of the small iron l clad turtle back" gun-boats of the Mis-. sissippi squadron, and had been detailed | in charge of an ammunition barge or ''powder-boat She had been lowed down the river, with 8 full cargo, but now lay with her head against the levee at the. powder-landing, between three and four 1 miles above Memphis.
 1t was early i'll the fourth year of the civil war, and it was well understood that great deal of ammunition would yet be { required.
 An hour or so later, Randall stood at 1 ing score of colored bouts, who. were gong and coming, busily employed in removing the percussion shells. .
 Every man of them was deeply impress ed with the solemnity of the work he was doing, and was visibly afraid of each bur. den he brought up from the hold of the barge. All the customary shouting and singing had subsided into beitting grav= ity. There were no loungers on the levee, for the sentries posted at suitable distances prevented the approach of unauthorized pei spns No other craft of any kind was moored near the barge which contained so many pounds of compressed powder and peril. 1T
 The ridge of the vee was many feet above the river level, and was alresrly lined with inc terrible cylinders, whose yet urd mmed copper glistened insthe sum shine.
 "Nearly done," said Randall, aloud, land am glad of it. Can't say I've any nerves to speak of, but I'd rather move a hundred loads of mere powder or ordinary Su0l1. uOu U 1LA0 buOSO UIlIuKSs-
 He glanced down at the muddy torrent of the Mississippi rushing by in mill race haste, and added: ~- r ''I'd be safer in the middle of the river than am here."
 He was undoubtedly man of courage, and his nerves were such as fitted him for his present duty, but he was unable to put . away from him strong sense of the lonely . peril of his post. Neither could he avoid kind of vague calculation of the enormous destructive forces chained in the cargo concealed by the deck he stood upon. <
 Tramp, tramp, tramp, with sombre steAdiness, the athletic roustabouts went down the companion-way, or came up again each at return bearing one or more of the new explosives. These did not make all undnly heavy shoulder-load, and there was no apparent danger of an acci- dent. The veteran artilleryman down iu the hold, who superintended the picking up and shouldering, had been ceaseless il his admonitions, and every shell had been lifted with clear understanding that, as onerOusta bout expressed 1t: ''Ef should sneeze, de sh, Il would take dat advantage and go off. ."
 A transport steamer, coming down tht - river, seemed to sheer away from the 'powder landlng,' as if it were place tt be summed, and Raudall may be justified in asserting that ..-
 ''The guls fly high over it, and evel the buzzards wouldn't light on a dead mule if he lay On, this levee Its dreary | work"
 SD it was, without extra pay or honor except for the roustabouts, who received double wages. They were all picked mon and as well fitted for that service as any white men, but the colonel of artillery haC remarked of them:
 'I'd rather lose them than as many vol unteers, if anything should happen"
 All war material, human or other has it's assignable value when the question o expenditure has to be raised. Even commanding general knows what regiment . he can best afford to report as part of the price paid for victory. The colonel die not put any estimate upon Randall or the old artilleryman down in the hold of the barge.
 The latter was now hopping his fore head with his bandanna, and saying to the arriving squads of roustabouts:
 ,, 'Only a couple of dozen more, boys . and then we can get out of this oven. Itl , almost hot enough to fire barrel of gun powder without any fuse or match either. Each in turn picked up and shouldereG the shell assigned to him, and wheeled to- : ward,the companion-way.
 Randall, on the stern of the barge, witt his pencil and tally y-book in his hand took due note of every man and shell, bui now and then seemed disposed to turn and stare for a second or SO at the yellow fooc that went swirling and eddylng by. -a. II could do it." he said, Eff an accident should happen only there wouldn't be any warning. First I'd know shouldn' : know any nything..'- ,: ~ s<
 At that moment a long, lank, loosely built roustabout came up the narrow stair }, way, with a gleaming tube of copper aEd iron on his left shoulder. h.. :. ''That's the left-handed man from l. Calro, " said Randall. "His bones are put together with strings. Hallo!' A a1nal . sharp nail had worked it's way out of some !. ragged pocket, and had fallen upon the D deck, with it's heel in crack and point st = aimed that the next forward step of the f loose man drove one of his bare, aplay feet d heavily against if. There was sharI HH yell, a sudden forgetfulness of all the e warnings of the old artilleryman, and Ran. . dall saw the shell pitched recklessly, point V forward toward the deck of the barge. He . did not wait for it to strike. Wheeling in. ! stantly, he sprang out, with all his power,